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Scientist and inventor Dasia Taylor was born on April 6, 2004, in Chicago, Illinois. Taylor graduated from Iowa City West High School in Iowa City, Iowa, in 2021.
In 2019, at age fifteen, Taylor conducted an experiment with beets. She discovered that dye from beets applied to surgical sutures would change color at a perfect pH point, revealing if a wound was healing properly. When healing correctly, the suture thread (containing beet juice) would change from bright red to dark purple. Cesarean infections were of particular concern for Taylor. In some African nations, as much as 20 percent of women giving birth by c-section experience surgical site infections.
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Black inventor Otis F. Boykin was born in 1920 in Dallas, Texas. His mother died before his first birthday. His father was employed as a carpenter and later became a minister. Boykin graduated from Fisk University in 1941. While in college, he worked as a laboratory assistant at an aerospace laboratory, testing automatic aircraft controls. Following graduation from Fisk, Boykin was employed as a lab assistant for Majestic Radio and TV Corporation in Chicago, Illinois, and eventually became a supervisor there. In 1944, he began employment with the P.J. Nilsen Research Laboratory. Boykin began graduate studies in 1944 but quickly dropped out because he could not afford the tuition. In 1946, Boykin briefly led his own company, Boykin-Fruth, Inc., where he began developing various inventions.
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African American scientist Dennis Weatherby is responsible for the Cascade dish detergent chemical formula. He was born in Brighton, Alabama, on December 4, 1959. Weatherby developed a love for science as a child. Following high school he attended Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, on a football scholarship. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in chemistry in 1982.
Following graduation, Weatherby was employed by Proctor and Gamble as a process engineer. Within two years, he led a consumer products team focusing on developing a new detergent. Previous detergents stained both dishes and dishwashers. Weatherby and a co-developer Brian J. Roselle developed a dish solution with a lemon-yellow pigment that did not stain dishes. Weatherby patented the “automatic dishwasher detergent composition” formula on December 22, 1987. He was 27 years old. The formula is still used for all lemon-scented cleaning products containing bleach.
Weatherby left Protocor and Gamble and was briefly employed by The Whittaker Corporation. He then returned to his alma mater, Central State Univesity, in 1989 as a faculty member, advisor, recruiter, and counselor. He then joined the faculty of Auburn University in 1996 to launch the school’s new minority engineering program. After leaving Auburn, he was employed by the Univesity of Notre Dame in 2004, serving as an associate dean in the graduate school. He then accepted a position at Northern Kentucky University in 2006 as Associate Provost.
Weatherby experienced chronic high blood pressure throughout his life. In August 2007, he was recovering at home after a period of illness related when he hit his foot and developed a blood clot that traveled to his brain. Weatherby died on September 15, 2007. He was 47 years old, leaving behind a wife, four daughters, and two sons.
Another installment of melanated mail has been delivered. Ponder, reflect, and pass it on!
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Tope Awotona is the billionaire founder and CEO of Calendly. Calendly is an online scheduling platform designed to make meeting scheduling easier. Awotona founded the company in 2013 after being frustrated with the back-and-forth process required to schedule meetings. The platform currently has 10+ million users. Calendly users like the platform’s ease of access and “no ads” feature available to premium users. Its clientele includes companies such as Lazy Boy and Ancestry.com.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Awotona moved to the United States at age fifteen, where his family settled in Marietta, GA. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Georgia, where he graduated with a degree in business. He worked in several sales positions after graduation before trying his hand at entrepreneurship. Awotona had three failed business ventures before finding success with Calendly. The failed ventures included a dating website, projector sales, and garden equipment.
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Black food chemist Lloyd Augustus Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois, in 1894. Attending high school in Aurora, IL, he was one of only five black students at his high school. Hall graduated with honors in 1912. In 1914, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from Northwestern University. In 1916 received a Master of Science degree from the University of Chicago. He married Myrrhene Newsome on September 23, 1919. She was a teacher from Macomb, IL. The couple had two children. Following graduation, He was offered a position by Western Electric Company through a telephone interview. However, when he showed up for his first day of work, he was told, “We don’t take niggers”. Hall then interviewed and was hired by the City of Chicago as a chemist. He would go on to work for several organizations including the U.S. government and United Nations. The majority of his 34-year career was spent at Griffith Laboratories.
Hall developed methods to keep food fresh while maintaining flavor. Many of the chemicals still used to preserve food today resulted from his pioneering research. Before his groundbreaking discoveries, food preservation was challenging, and the methods used often significantly altered the taste and flavor of foods. The most common food preservatives consisted of a mixture of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. This combination often made foods bitter and unpalatable. One of Hall’s most successful inventions addressed this problem. In 1932, he developed a variety of complex chemical salts that could be used as a preservative without negatively impacting the taste of food. This discovery prompted his employer at the time, Griffith Laboratories, to open a factory dedicated to producing his chemical salt compounds. He also invented processes to sterilize spices, other food materials, and pharmaceuticals still being used today. He also developed an innovative method to preserve meats known as “flash-drying”
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Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. (1923-2011) was a renowned African American mathematician and physicist. He worked at the University of Chicago on the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was a scientific research and development initiative to support nuclear weapons production. It was a partnership between the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In solidarity with 70 other Manhattan Project scientists, Wilkins signed Leo Szilard’s petition to President Truman. This petition sought to alert President Truman and the U.S. government of the harm that could be done by deploying the atomic bomb. However, the President nor the Secretary of War received the petition before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Wilkins, along with many other scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, was interested in how the use of atomic energy might be applied peacefully.
African American computer scientist Lisa Gelobter (1971 – ) has played an integral role in bringing several internet technologies to market. Perhaps her most recognized project is developing the animation that is used to create GIFs. Gelobter previously worked as the Chief Digital Service Officer for the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama Administration. She also worked as Chief Digital Officer for BET. Little is known about her background. Being a technology executive, she is likely very adept at keeping her digital footprint to a minimum! Gelobter is a 1991 graduate of Brown University. There she earned a computer science degree with an emphasis in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
On, Monday, February 24, 2020, NASA announced that African American American physicist and mathematician, Katherine Johnson has died. She was 101 years old. In 1969 she calculated the flight path for NASA’s historic Apollo space mission to the moon. The movie, “Hidden Figures” chronicled Johnson’s experiences along with that of several other African-American women at NASA.
Employed by NASA for over 30 years, she retired in 1986. Johnson’s love for math dates back to her childhood. She loved to “count everything”. A gifted student, Johnson graduated from high school at age 14. On November 24, 2015, she was one of 17 individuals to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is truly a pioneer! Johnson was also a distinguished member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc!
We salute you, Soror Johnson!! Well done! Rest Well!
Jewel Plummer Cobb (1924 – 2017) grew up in Chicago, Illinois. Her groundbreaking research studied the relationship between skin pigmentation and cancer. She was also a staunch advocate for increasing the number of women and students of color in STEM careers. Her father, Frank Plummer was a doctor and her mother, Carriebel Cole Plummer, was physical education and dance teacher. Cobb’s grandfather was formerly enslaved man who received his freedom and graduated from Howard University in 1898, earning a degree in pharmacy. Continue reading “Jewel Plummer Cobb: African American Cancer Researcher and Scientist “→
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